Menlo Park Cat Survives Rat Poison; Set For Adoption

SAN RAFAEL (CBS SF) — The Peninsula Humane Society & SPCA is seeking an owner for a cat that improbably survived ingesting rat poison and was rescued at a workplace in Menlo Park in October.

The 7-month-old female cat named Millie ingested bromethalin, a toxin in over-the-counter rodenticides, and was found by a good Samaritan on Oct. 2 in extremely bad shape, humane society officials said.

“He recognized immediately the cat was very sick and brought her to us,” PHS/SPCA spokeswoman Buffy Martin Tarbox said in a news release. “She was completely comatose, and over the following days had intermittent seizures. She was in such bad shape we didn’t expect her to survive.”

However, Millie was able to somehow survive the poison, which causes fluid to gather in the brain and spinal cord, causing severe swelling of tissues, seizures, coma and death.

Humane society officials say the cat has impaired sight and will likely never be neurologically normal, so they are seeking a household for her that will keep her as an indoor cat, ideally one that is quiet with no small children.

Millie is spayed, vaccinated, microchipped and her adoption fee is $80. People can visit her at the PHS/SPCA shelter in Burlingame at 1450 Rollins Road.